Arc

Oh yes I touched on that subject like last page. I really wish it had an aoe tag which affected the bounce range, maybe at the cost of nerfing the base bounce range quite a bit to compensate for Concentrated damage boost. It is currently very poor in terms of what you can do to increase it, it's like the spell version of Poison Arrow and Viper Strike(but not as bad really as those really don't benefit from much at all).

With quality on it, Arc has a higher % to shock than most lightning skills (not 100% sure on this.) That's obviously a big plus. But it's still just a bit of a weird spell, single target it's obviously awful, it's no AoE either, as you only hit 3 targets max... It's somewhere in between which makes it kind of lackluster.

Still, what I do currently, I hook it up with Remote Mine, pop 5 of 'em at a time, good fun. It looks and sounds awesome, they've definitely got that part down.

I really enjoy Arc, but find it lackluster in terms of power. Not quite enough bounces for good AoE, not enough damage for good single target. I kinda wish it had more bounces even if it meant lower damage effectiveness just for the cool factor, though I expect that would just make it even less effective (though it might become a good shock spam). I also wish Arc was available at lower level.

Comparing Arc and Spark at low levels, the two compared against each other decently, with Spark being much stronger at point blank range on single targets, and Arc being a ranged attack, but neither work well compared to Ice Nova or Ice Spear (low levels here, I've heard good things about spark at higher levels).

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Vipermagi wrote:

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Dechef wrote:

With quality on it, Arc has a higher % to shock than most lightning skills (not 100% sure on this.)

This is true regardless of Quality, even. It's the only Lightning skill with an inherent Chance to Shock bonus.

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Exousia wrote:

Chain is on the table for EB and Blood magic builds, but has been argued in this thread already that it might not be as effective as previously thought.

Chain is, in my opinion, only worth it if you have Proliferate as well. Proliferate means Shocks are AoE, and Chain gets you more hits (and thus more Shocks) per cast. You lose a bit on base damage per cast, but the rapid triple-Shock stacks should compensate nicely.
(if Chain wasn't inordinately expensive I'd be rolling a new Marauder)

In theory, yes chain would seem like a great option paired with proliferate. However, it really becomes overkill as the radius for the proliferate begins to get larger. I've had very little issue spreading shock to an entire pack quickly without the extra two hits, mostly because the radius on proliferate by level 17 or so is quite large. It's an improvement, of course, to have chain for such a reason, but not quite as much later on. Perhaps the sacrifice in damage and increase in mana cost (chain) would be worth a slightly quicker spread if you ran a spork as your main and arc as purely a shock spread.

I feel that chain as a -25% reduce would run better. This way, running arc as a shock spread and spork as a damage option wouldn't feel superior in every way compared to purely arc. After all, I think the chain change was really for skills like LA with little consideration for how it would effect skills like Arc.

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Exousia2 wrote:

-sorry for trimming-

shock debuff stacks 3 times, not a waste.

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soul4hdwn wrote:

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Exousia2 wrote:

-sorry for trimming-

shock debuff stacks 3 times, not a waste.

Not the point I was making. Was saying that I can stack shock quite quickly without chain due to multiple ele prolif procs and their range already. 3 prolif pools (once prolif is leveled up for a decent radius) can very easily spread shock without the need for 5. The point was that chain for the purpose of shock spreading seems a bit excessive with prolif when prolif already has a large radius and shock chances make getting 3-5 pools possible without chain within 2 quick casts. If you can stack shock to 3 quite quickly without chain, I believe it is a waste for that purpose if you weigh the downsides. (mana increase, damage decrease)

If the only good point of the skill is that it shocks easily when using with EleProlif then something is wrong.

My point still remains, FP with faster projectiles, hits a TON MORE than chain, hits WAY more targets. and deals overall an insane amount more damage.

A normal cluster of enemies is somewhere around 8-10, it doesnt't require you to be the jesus-of-aim to get most of them in a line (IF you are not using LMP) to hit them all, if you are using supports it can be extremely easy.
With faster projectiles FP gets more range to deal more damage, since it degrades slower per meter traveled, coz it goes faster. IT also has an innate higher crit and cast speed, so i can cast more and crit more with it and hit more monsters easily.

It's also way cheaper, and it can use the best supports currently in the game, multiple projectiles & chain.

So i don't really see the choice , except the visual one, of going ARC instead of FP.

Some of you say that stacking cast speed to shock everyone. Same can be said about any spell and its crit effect. But just looking at the skill and its supports, it's clear arc is lackluster.

I have a witch named ACDC , it has lightning passives, cast speed, using a shit load of spell dmg for its level, and guess what? I'm using FP becuase i clear entire rooms with it easily. With arc it takes forever and its nowhere near as reliable as FP.

^ basicaly this minus chain with FP part.
If only was ARC normalized like other spells so it would get same amount of chains like projectil spells then it will be viable spell for aoe too. But now its just gimmic spell.

When you multiply lightning arrow with LMP all 3 shots hits near 3 enemies. When you Chain LA all your chains hits near 3 enemies. I just dont understand why ARC dont work in same way?
It doesnt need rocet scientis brain to see how fast is other spells and supports clean whole screen...
In last game were 2 wanders and 2 LA rangers i basicaly stoped casting, that ARC damage is not worth of clicking.

Hi Mark/GGG,

Is shooting through wall intended? especially in Solaris temple's mobs.

Also Trap skills has a tendency to be targeted, though its chained, not the initial target.